NIMHANS and its Brain Museum – A National Asset

Indian medicine has its roots in multiple indigenous domains including Ayurveda which has rising importance. With the ever-growing need to treat people in a more efficient, cost-effective way and at the same time something which challenges the creative human mind, every country is working hard on their department of research and there is no denying that India is one among the nations that invest a ton of attention and capital in it.

NIMHANS logo

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences happens to be the first stone to build the massive medical background that the country has. A university which has the biggest research center for neurosurgery and brain-related works and operating as an institute of national importance and has the only brain museum in the country, NIMHANS has its foundation laid in 1847 as a mental asylum by the philanthropic Maharaja of Mysore.

As of today, it is the nodal center for research and is instrumental in providing professional education in the fields varying from neuroscience to psychiatry to human genetics. The admission process includes an entrance exam along with an interview. It is also to be noted that the 19th convocation was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

NIMHANS was pivotal in the raising voice against certain allegations which includes the juvenile justice bill in 2015, the diagnosis of a contestant in the Bengal talent show in 2008. Rumors say that they were involved in the suppression of the Protestants against the Kudankulam Nuclear plant.

dissected specimens of brains

With Professor B N Gangadhar as the Director, NIMHANS has consistently worked on brains collected from donor due to infective and degenerative damage. The neurobiology Research Center which houses the brain bank, the largest brain museum in Asia, is home to donated brains and hearts from people who had road accidents or were active donors.

Frequent programs are conducted by the institute to promote people to donate brain and create awareness on epilepsy which is on the high these days. As India is not uncommon with superstitions and mystic beliefs, the mystery about the brain and its functions are deciphered in the brain museum, with visuals of dissected and frozen brains of numerous donors with some even affected by diseases that the common man is unheard of.